


These Scars are Just a Trace

by quiet_rebel



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 22:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet_rebel/pseuds/quiet_rebel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“After you left me in Mexico, I didn't come home, at least, not right away. I was with Seth.” | If the Dusk writers won't talk about it, I will!</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Scars are Just a Trace

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Hymn For the Missing (Guillotine Remix)" RED | https://youtu.be/2PZU7-RB0xQ  
> "You took it with you when you left  
> These scars are just a trace  
> Now it wanders lost and wounded  
> This heart that I misplaced"
> 
> Feedback is fuel.

When Kate walks into the Gonzalez’s living room, she understands. The broken furniture. The overturned tables. The shattered glass.

The silence.

This is all Ranger Gonzalez has left.

She picks up a small rattle from the floor. Her stomach turns, thinking about how Tanner had come after Ranger Gonzalez’s family. She has to hold back the bile rising in her throat when she recalls how Tanner had tied her to an altar. Anger flashes hot and wild through her. He was supposed to be dead. 

But she knows now, not everything stays dead.

“Kate.”

She looks up as Ranger Gonzalez hands her a cup of water. She accepts it with a small smile and sits on the couch. He remains standing, still dressed in his black duster and Stetson. Like he has to stay armed and alert.

She takes a sip of the cold water and drops her gaze to her lap. The trip from Bethel had been quiet. Ranger Gonzalez hadn't pushed for answers, and for that, she is grateful. She's still searching for own to the questions swirling inside her head: about Scott, about culebras, and even about where Seth is at this moment.

Ranger Gonzalez shrugs out of his duster. Underneath his coat, his shoulder holster has two pistols. Strapped around his waist are four wooden stakes. 

“Is that a Colt .45?” Kate asks.

His eyes narrow, like how could she possibly know that? He removes the gun from under his left arm. “Yeah, but I'm hoping this isn't the kind of weapon you had in mind for training.”

She sets down the water on the coffee table and extends her hand. “Can I see?”

He hesitates, but with a sigh, he removes the magazine before giving her the gun. 

It's heavy and familiar. She flashbacks to another time and place.  
_  
“Show me.”_

_“Not right now, princess.”_

_“You're going to have to teach me sooner or later.”_

Kate clears a spot on the table, and just like that, the motions come back to her.

She checks the chamber to make sure it's empty before releasing the slide lock. Then, she pushes down on the recoil spring knob and removes the spring. From there, she takes out the barrel bushing from the barrel and slide. Next, the slide from the pistol handle.

When she finishes disassembling the gun, she stares at the pieces. Seth would have been proud. She hates thinking that.

Kate keeps her gaze on the parts. “Before you say anything, Ranger Gonzalez, I just want you to know it was my decision. After you left me in Mexico, I didn't come home, at least, not right away. I was with Seth.”

She hears Ranger Gonzalez sharply inhale.

“I did the same thing you did for three months,” she continues, her eyes still trained on the broken pieces. “I pretended I was someone else. Maybe I was hiding from the truth. Maybe I wasn't ready to face what had happened that night in the labyrinth. I just wanted to block it, make it go away, you know?” Her chest tightens as tears fall down her cheeks. She thinks about Rafa, Jessica, Scott's teammates. “But it didn't make a difference. I couldn't erase it. The truth is I lost my father and my brother down there, and to be honest, Ranger Gonzalez, I think I lost a part of myself down there too.”

When she finally lifts her head, Ranger Gonzalez is looking at her with a solemn expression. Maybe he's thinking he also lost himself three months ago.

“Whatever you're hunting, we're going to find them,” Kate says. “We're going to find them and we're going to stop them before they cause anymore pain and destruction. I may have lost Scott for good, but you still have a chance to be with your family.”

She looks over the wreckage in Ranger Gonzalez’s home, then at the pieces spread out on the table. _You can still put them back together._ She picks up the pistol's handle and reassembles the .45 as effortlessly as she had taken it apart. 

Ranger Gonzalez hands her the last piece—the magazine clip. It's a sign of trust. Kate takes it from him and slides it back into place. The gun is whole again.

She hands it back to him, but he shakes his head.

“Keep it,” he says.

Kate nods.

“So, I assume the person who showed you how to disassemble the piece also showed you how to use it?” Ranger Gonzalez asks.

Kate nods again. “He did.”

“Good.” He clears his throat as though he's uncomfortable with the fact it was Seth Gecko who taught Kate how to fire a gun. “Then, tomorrow, bright and early, we practice.”

“Practice what?”

He moves toward the kitchen. Kate follows, holding her new weapon. They enter his garage. He flips on the lights, and Kate widens her eyes.

Ranger Gonzalez has created an arsenal: rifles, stakes, chains, bear traps...she even spots a sword. But something else takes her interest. 

She tucks the gun into her waistband and picks up the crossbow. It feels different and exciting.

It makes her feel whole again.

THE END


End file.
